FairGoer Provides Virtual Access to Zillions of Art Fairs

Even as talk of the struggling art industry ramps up, art fairs pop up more and more every day. “This year, in New York only, about a dozen art fairs took place in the span of a month,” points out New York-based Italian architect Chiara Falvia. “Unless you have unlimited time and the gift of ubiquity, it’s truly impossible to see all of them.” As a response to this ever-expanding world of international art fairs, she and a number of her friends set up TheFairGoer, an interactive web platform that brings the art to you. The site, which was born in October 2011, shows images of art works at art fairs all over the world, and provides access to the galleries representing the artists and their work. The information—pricing, artist information, et cetera—is all right there. You can then save your favorite pieces, and curate your own personal virtual gallery space, which is probably a great litmus test for whether you actually enjoy whatever trend is most prevalent in a given year. If you’re noticing you’re saving a lot of pieces by a certain artist or from a certain gallery, you can decide that maybe that one is worth a real-life visit. (Or I suppose you could just show your friends what great taste you have, a la Tumblr.)

Some art works are obviously not going to work on a flat, glowing computer screen, and for those, hey, maybe you need to buy a ticket to Venice. But it’s probably worth taking a look at the FairGoer first. (It’s free.) (Photo: TheFairGoer)